Mum has been the operative word in recent days about the April 30 desert incident involving Pinal County sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll.

Readers will remember this one: Sheriff Paul Babeu (in the photo) told the world that Puroll claimed to have been grazed by a bullet fired by a group of six or so AK-47-toting drug smugglers.

Babeu said his veteran deputy apparently happened upon the bad guys while patrolling alone in a remote locale south of Interstate 8 and west of Casa Grande.

No one yet has been charged in the highly publicized case.

Here and here are a few news stories to remind readers of the official spin.

We wrote a blog item on May 3, noting that current and retired law-enforcement types had contacted us with concern that several things stunk about the deputy's account (which was filtered through Sheriff Babeu and his staff).

We certainly didn't, nor are we now, accusing Deputy Puroll of having staged his own shooting, though the questions raised by our myriad cop sources were intriguing.

Now, this:

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A law enforcement officer familiar with details of the ongoing Arizona Department of Public Safety probe of the incident says, "That whole [crime] scene was just not right," adding that investigators "found zero evidence supporting [Puroll's] recollections of the incident."

We'll add that this officer does not know Deputy Puroll, nor does the officer have any known hard-on for the deputy or for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office.